Spell check is handy but automatic correction is an even more seamless way to fix mistakes as you type. Today we look at two applications that correct your spelling errors, key transposing, and other errors on the fly.

We misspell words for all sorts of reasons ranging from chronically poor spelling to typing too fast and transposing keys. Traditionalists might wag their fingers and insist we all just get better at spelling—and they might have a point—but in the mean time we're going to arm you with some handy automatic correction tools to make sure the only one who knows the dark secrets of your keyboard fumbling is you.

PhraseExpress is a SwissArmy knife of text manipulation. Not only do you get a powerful text expansion tool that comes packed with thousands of handy presets (like those for setting up business addresses and other long and repetitive tasks) but it has a great autocorrect feature built-in.

The default English language correction pack is 3,000+ entries and corrects everything from common misspellings to common letter transpositions to adding in flourishes like often neglected accent marks—decor to décor for example. In addition to being absurdly thorough, PhraseExpress is also adaptive. If it notices you backtracking and changing a correction it makes after several occurrences it will offer to delete that particular correction from the correction database. Phrase Express is available for Windows as either a full installation or a handy portable version. For a Mac application with similar functionality, try TextExpander ($34.95).

If you'd like automatic correction without the system overhead of running a full text-replacement app this AutoHotkey script should do the trick. Universal AutoCorrect with AutoHotkey and Wikipedia is a simple AutoHotkey-based app that harnesses the power of Wikipedia's commonly misspelled words list to help you automatically correct your writing. Run the AutoHotkey script and invisibly all your errors are wiped away. You'll have to edit the list manually to remove items you don't want on there and the script lacks for any sort of intelligent correction based on context or phrases, but it's lightweight and it pulls from the thousands of words in the Wikipedia database.

Whether you opt to use the heavy-artillery of PhraseExpress's automatic correction and text expansion or stick with the simplicity of the AutoHotkey script, your computer will now stand watch over your typing and fix errors as they occur. To put text manipulators to work for you beyond simple automatic correction of text check out our guide to using text expanders.